Source: Scotsman (UK) Contact: http://www.scotsman.com/ Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 Author: Nick Thorpe OLYMPICS CHIEF'S CALL TO 'GO SOFT' ON DRUGS ATTACKED LEADING figures in British athletics yesterday reacted in anger and astonishment to calls by the president of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) for a relaxation in doping restrictions. Juan Antonio Samaranch ignited the latest drugs controversy during a Spanish newspaper interview when he demanded some "harmless" performance-enhancing drugs be legalised in sport. He justified the comment - which comes in the middle of the Tour de France drug scandal - on the basis that only drugs which damaged health needed to be banned. The directors of Spain's top two cycling teams backed his calls yesterday. However, the idea received almost blanket condemnation from British experts in the field, where the prevailing demand has been for stricter controls. Even as the row intensified, it was announced that two of the biggest names in American athletics - the shot-putter Randy Barnes and sprinter Dennis Mitchell - had been suspended indefinitely after testing positive for drugs. The controversy prompted the IOC to announce a special conference in Lausanne in Janunary to review the fight against doping in sport. British Olympic Association (BOA) officials welcomed the move, and pledged to play a major part. Craig Reedie, chairman of the BOA, said last night: "We do not condone the use of performance-enhancing drugs, whether they are harmful to an athlete's health or otherwise, within British Olympic sport. "We are seeking further clarification from the president of the IOC regarding the context in which his comments were made." David Moorcroft, the former athlete who is chief executive of UK Athletics 98. said: "As soon as we give in to the notion that anything goes then the concept of fair competition has no meaning." Sir Arthur Gold, a lifelong anti-doping campaigner and the president of the Amateur Athletic Association, called Mr Samaranch's comments "unwise". "To use drugs is to cheat, whether they damage your health or not," he said. "No-one knows for certain which drugs are dangerous to the health, but if they enhance a person's performance it is blatant cheating. Speaking in an interview with the Spanish daily paper 'El Mundo' on Sunday, Mr Samaranch said: "As it stands, all those substances prohibited by the medical commission of the International Olympic Committee are considered as doping substances. For me, this is not sufficient. Drug-taking is anything which firstly damages the health of the sportsman and, secondly, artificially improves his performance. "If something produces just the second effect, then for me it's not drug-taking. If it produces the first, then yes." He later reiterated: "The list of products must he reduced drastically. Anything that doesn't adversely affect the health of the athlete, for me, isn't doping." Yesterday, Eusebio Unzue, the Banesto cycling team director, said he was completely in agreement with Mr Samaranch: "I'm also pleased that he has chosen this time to speak out. It's very important because our sport needs to recapture its long-held good image," Meanwhile, a loading British distance runner, Jon Brown, said the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO - at the centre of the Tour de France doping scandal which has seen the authorities detain several riders - was as rife in his own sport as in the cycling world. "Two years ago [the use of EPO] was virtually non-existent in distance running, but I think now you have got some main players operating on the stuff," he was quoted as saying in a newspaper. "Once you go down that road - the same as cycling - sport is not real sport and the barriers are unlimited." The former British middle-distance world record holders Steve Ovett and Steve Cram also spoke out against Mr Samaranch's views. Mr Ovett said Mr Samaranch wanted "to throw in the towel" in the fight against drugs. "How do you define dangerous?" he asked. "ls it when someone keels over and dies?" - --- Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"